8 Effective Ways to Use YouTube for Business

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At Sendible, we have recently added YouTube integration to augment the ever-growing list of channels already supported by oursocial media management tool. To celebrate our launch, here are 8 tips to help you make the most of YouTube for marketing your business.

Video can be a very powerful tool for businesses of any size, but YouTube's free-to-use model, ease of use and mass market audience means it's a great channel for small businesses. However, like any tool, in order to get the most of it, it needs to be used well.

1. Create a Branded YouTube Channel

This step is often overlooked by small businesses. Your YouTube channel is basically your house for the videos you create and upload, the videos you have selected as favorites, and those that you have organized into a playlist.

A customized channel gives you the opportunity to add and showcase your company's branding with specific colors, information and links to your website and/or relevant social media pages. A channel also gives viewers an option to subscribe to your content with the click of a button.

2. Make Sure Your Content Fills a Relevant Need

At Sendible we aim to provide videos to helppeople effectively manage their Social Media activity. We post recordings of our join webinars with industry experts and screencasted how-to tutorials on using Sendible on a wide variety of topics such as;How to manage clients,automatically replying to people on Twitterand many more. By doing this you create valuable information and interest in you and your company thus generating loyalty and trust.

3. Develop Videos that are Quick, Simple, Engaging, and Professional

Decent video cameras are no longer expensive, so you can make a professional video without breaking the bank. Pay attention to lighting the area, sound quality and shakiness of the camera. Your best bet is to use a tripod. It is important to plan an outline and a script prior to making your video. Much like writing a story, you will want to include a beginning, middle and end. Make sure your video has a purpose. Keep it simple and short. It's recommend 2-4 minutes for a video.

4. Optimize Your Video

According toWikipedia, "In April 2011, James Zern, a YouTube software engineer, revealed that 30 percent of videos accounted for 99 percent of views on the site." YouTube claims that more than 24 hours of video are uploaded every minute, so the number of specific videos on the site is constantly changing. It is important you do everything you can to make your video easily found.

Your videos should be findable both within and outside of YouTube. Videos often appear on the first page of search engines, and are a proven method of leap-frogging your competition to the top of the search results page. The fact that Google owns YouTube can't be overlooked.

To make your video more findable, you'll want to focus on three key areas (TDT):

-Title: Make sure your targeted keywords are in the first few words of your title. Another trick is to add a colon after your initial keywords and rephrase your title for maximum effect. For example, your video on saving money for college might be called "College Savings Plans: The 529 Plan and Your Child."

-Description: Two things to keep in mind here: 1) start your description with a full URL, and 2) don't be stingy with your description-more is... well, more. Be as descriptive and keyword-rich as possible. This will help you get found more easily by people searching YouTube for your type of content. You can also include more URLs throughout your content.

-Tags:Be sure to include any and all related keywords in the tags field.

These aren't the only variables in getting found, but they're the easiest to manage and control. Page views, subscribers, comments and likes can all affect your video's visibility.

5. Participate With Others on YouTube

Spend time looking around on YouTube and make "friends." Visit the competition and see what they are doing well and not doing so well. Engage with others on YouTube and they will in turn engage with you and your brand, which helps spread your information.

6. Share Your Videos in Other Places

Sendible can help you share your videos on your blog, tweets and Facebook page and many others. This is once again where your thumbnail, tags, title and keywords are important to further encourage interaction with your video and your brand. Videos are effective on Facebook landing pages welcoming people to your brand. Tweet the link of your newest video to your Twitter audience. Video blogs are becoming more and more popular.

7. Call to Action

Always include your company's website address in the video as you want to give the viewers additional reasons to engage with your brand. Other ideas for calls to action might include: offering a contest, discount coupons, or instructional guides.

8. Measure

Sendible provides you with reporting and analytics tools, providing you with a quick snapshot look at the results of your video. The information is available within the My Reports section of your dashboard. You can track the number of views, the demographics of the viewers, and also how people found your video. Alongside all of your other social media analytics allowing you to make informed marketing decisions and measure the success of your Social Media Strategy.